Sunday, February 24, 2008

Ancestry.co.uk MediaRoom - Press Releases: "14 MILLION WORLD WAR ONE MEDAL RECORDS LAUNCH ONLINEThe complete medal records of British soldiers, and also those for many Colonial soldiers who fought in World War One go online for the first time today as Ancestry.co.uk launches the WW1 Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1922.

A testament to the bravery of 5.5 million soldiers and including many famous names such Academy Award winning actor Noel Coward, father of the last Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten, and Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton, as well as that of the last surviving ‘Tommy’, Harry Patch, these records form the most comprehensive WW1 British and Colonial military collection still intact. In all, the collection contains the records for more than 14 million commendations.

During WW1 all medal entitlements were compiled by the Army Medal Office in lists called Medal Rolls. From them index cards were produced for every soldier containing details of medals awarded, the reason for decoration, and also corps, unit and regiment.

More than 50,000 cards also listed details of covert operations undertaken or letters from next of kin on their reverse.

these were not included on the other siteThe National Archives | DocumentsOnline | World War One medal cards The Medal Rolls Index, known as the Medal Index Cards (MIC), was created by the Army Medal Office (AMO) towards the end of the First World War. The index was created to enable the AMO to place on one card, all of the details about an individual's medal entitlement, their rank or ranks, the unit or units they served in, the first operational theatre they served in and most importantly, the original AMO medal roll references. These medal rolls (held in the series WO 329) show the entitlement to the medals and also provide all of the accounting references for the issuing of the medal or medals.

The original index cards are now held by the Western Front Association (WFA), an organisation dedicated to furthering interest in the period 1914-1918. Through a partnership with the WFA, Ancestry.co.uk has for the first time colour-digitised both sides of the cards"

WW1 medals records go online - Personal Computer World: "The collection will be put online in phases.Today 2.1 million records are available, with the remaining 3.4 million to be launched shortly.High resolution images of all medals are available upon request courtesy of Medal Yearbook, Token Publishing."